1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gate driving apparatus and a display device including the same, and more particularly, to a gate driving apparatus including an antistatic unit and a display device including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (“LCDs”) are a widely used type of flat panel displays. Generally, an LCD includes a pair of substrates, substrates thereof having electrodes disposed thereon, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the substrates. In an LCD, voltages are applied to the electrodes to generate an electric field the substrates. Accordingly, an alignment of liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer is controlled, and a polarization of incident light is thereby controlled. As a result, a desired image is displayed on the LCD.
In a conventional LCD, gate driving integrated circuits (“ICs”) are typically mounted using a tape carrier package (“TCP”) method or a chip on the glass (“COG”) method. However, other methods are needed to improve the LCD, such as by lowering manufacturing costs and/or product size, and by simplifying or otherwise improving design of the LCD, for example.
Accordingly, a gate driver, which generates a gate output signal using an amorphous silicon thin-film transistor (“TFT”) directly mounted on a glass substrate, has been developed. However, substantially amounts of electric charges accumulate in or near a source or drain line, a gate line, or a gate insulating film, for example, when a plurality of the amorphous silicon TFTs are disposed in such a gate driver. The electric charges that accumulate generate static electricity in a gate driving apparatus having the gate driver, and when a display device having the gate driver operates, performance of the display device is substantially degraded. Thus, there is substantial need to develop a gate driving apparatus and, more particularly, a gate driving apparatus using a plurality of amorphous silicon TFTs mounted on a glass substrate, that is highly resistant to static electricity.